In a letter addressed to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, public officials in central Brooklyn requested that a Jan. 24 vote on closing W.E.B. DuBois High School be postponed, reports Kelly Mena for Kings County Politics. The city is looking to shutter the majority Black school in Crown Heights, citing low enrollment.

The political storm pits a virtual who’s who of Brooklyn black elected officials against the de Blasio administration on the issue, and comes as the Department of Education’s Panel on Educational Policy (PEP) is scheduled to take a final vote to shutter W.E.B. DuBois High School, 402 Eastern Parkway, and bus the 134 at-risk students of color to Brownsville Academy High School, 1150 East New York Avenue, starting in the next school year.

DuBois High School, which has no gym, is located directly across the street from the coming Bedford Union Armory redevelopment that includes a state-of-the art gym on one side, and a coming high-end hotel on the other side. Brownsville, although a tight-knit neighborhood, has struggled for years with a high poverty rate.